Letters to the Editor Tuesday

As a life-long Savannahian, I read with great interest Stan Deaton’s Viewpoint column on Feb. 10 (“Oglethorpe: Man, monument ... and a bridge?”) renaming the Talmadge Bridge for General James Oglethorpe.

In my profession, I escort guests to our city from all over the country and the world and take great pride in showing off this beautiful city, which was planned under the vision of this man.

People’s jaws drop as we ride around the original squares from Oglethorpe’s plan for Savannah. I point out the earliest African-American church, the earliest Jewish synagogue and I mention the enormous diversity in our population.

I mention the Irish safe haven, the Italian Society, the French Society, the German Society, the large African–American population and Asian-American populations.

One only has to look at our city government or our police force to see the fantastic diversity, which is modern day Savannah. We have three major colleges here, including one that is considered one of the foremost art schools in the world.

Gov. Eugene Talmadge represented a Georgia of 70 years ago, and an ugly one at that. He has had his time.

With our port expansion making us America’s port of the future, it would be disgraceful to have his name gracing the first thing ships from all over the world see when they come down the Savannah River.

As John Lennon once said, “Time wounds all heels,” and the time has come for this “heel” to become a distant memory.

DEE HERB

Tybee Island

Don’t fall victim to political correctness

This is a comment on Stan Deaton’s column. Please leave our heritage alone.

Yes, Oglethorpe would have been an ideal name for the Talmadge Bridge in 1953. However, the people of Georgia decided otherwise.

Eugene Talmadge was a product of his times. He was no better, no worse than most people in Georgia prior to the ’60s. To begin changing names of monuments and sites because of political correctness would open up a can of worms that should be kept sealed.

Already across the South, schools with names with any connection to the Confederacy are being renamed. What’s next? Changing all sites with names of slave-owners — Washington, Adams, Jefferson?

Yes, slavery was wrong. I’m not going to defend it. Our history, right or wrong, is our history. To attempt to change or bury the historical facts for any reason would be a larger wrong. As a historian, Mr. Deaton must realize that it is not our place to attempt to change the facts of the past, only to record them.

J. RONALD DREW

Bloomingdale

Raped female soldiers deserve abortion choice

The publicity given to military women who can now serve equally with men in front-line combat also highlights another rights issue.

According to a “Mother Jones Magazine” article by Kate Sheppard, the Pentagon has more restrictive regulations in relation to using federal funds for abortion access for military women than the Hyde Amendment does for civilian women. The problem is compounded by the fact that many military women are deployed in nations, such as Afghanistan, in areas that are hostile outside of a U.S. military base with a safe medical facility.

This inequity is very evident if they have been raped.

Currently, there are approximately 200,000 women serving on active duty. Within this number, there were 471 reported rapes in 2011. The Pentagon estimated, however, that only about 13.5 percent of the claimed rapes are officially reported annually; some resulted in pregnancies.

Furthermore, without a formal finding of rape, a survivor cannot have an abortion performed at a military base. Unfortunately, such a finding usually involves a difficult and lengthy process anywhere. As a result, many women stationed in Third World countries are not only disadvantaged because a safe termination is not only unavailable locally, but also because of a lack of personal resources.

Many cannot arrange or afford to travel anywhere else for this procedure even if they get permission to leave their deployment. Most enlisted personnel earn only about $18,000 per year.

U.S. Sen. Jean Shaheen has proposed reducing this injustice through congressional action to give military women the same reproductive rights as civilians.

Our armed forces that must be ready to serve have great limitations. Because of this reality, they deserve better treatment on this issue simply because it involves a legitimate choice.

FRED NADELMAN

Savannah

Super Bowl ‘prank’ was hardly innocent

Your front page on Feb. 9 had two main stories about crime in the Savannah area.

At the bottom of that page was a piece titled, “Students sneak into Super Bowl.” A photo of the faces of two Savannah State University students proudly smiling accompanied the piece, along with a link to a video detailing their “innocent” entry to the event.

Clearly, this is an example of the mindset that underlies the lax attitude toward crime in many minds.

What in reality is a criminal act is presented as a “cute” prank.” According to a USA Today article, dated Feb. 2, the lowest-priced ticket on the Ticketmaster website was $2,387, and the highest priced ticket was $13,120 as of 2 p.m. ET on Jan. 22. Stubhub listed tickets starting at $2,119. A check on the Ticketmaster site on Jan. 24 showed that the cheap tickets were now “only” $2,188 per seat.

Even just at the base price, and averaging the two lowest ticket prices as the norm, this comes to $2,253 for an average entry-level ticket. This means that the theft of services committed by these two is $4,506.

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I could not have said it better myself. Why do the media feel the need to report this stuff? Why aren't they in jail ? looks like two counts of GRAND theft to me, plenty of evidence, so why are they NOT IN JAIL?

spot on. Mr. Drew, to make sure we don't bury the memory of Mr. Talmedge we can name a waste treatment plant after him. Streets, buildings and bridges are renamed all the time. Victory Drive, Congress St, Liberty and MLK are examples from right here in Savannah.

Gov. Talmadge was elected by a majority of Georgia citizens. If he was good enough for them than the bridge name should not change. Leave history alone. We have a Muslim communist in the white house and you worry about a bridge name.

Gov. Talmadge was elected by a majority of Georgia citizens. If he was good enough for them than the bridge name should not change. Leave history alone. We have a Muslim communist in the white house and you worry about a bridge name.

Gov. Talmadge was elected by a majority of Georgia citizens. If he was good enough for them than the bridge name should not change. Leave history alone. We have a Muslim communist in the white house and you worry about a bridge name.

I saw on 60 minutes (I think) a reporter interviewed a woman from Tennessee who voted twice, one by absentee ballot and then again in person. She also had family members doing the same thing. So yes there is a lot of voter fraud going on. Obama is the worst thing that has happened to this country and he may very well have been elected by voter fraud. There are a lot people out there that will commit voter fraud to keep their sugar daddy in office at the expense of the average hardworking taxpayer. What a shame.

So Dom, why didn't Breitbart post the names of the "two citizen journalists" that reported the "voter cheating"? Why didn't they post the name of the "Romney/Ryan poll observer" who supposedly reported the incident? How in God's name did they find out that "several dozen votes were recorded for Obama" in voting machines before it was stopped? That simply cannot be done. Why has Hamilton County had no investigation conducted and nothing about this supposed incident has appeared in any official state or county records? Because the only real fraud is the story. And you fell for it.

Unlikely. Any voter fraud is unacceptable, but to say Obama won by voter fraud is ridiculous. I hope Hillary runs in 2016 so she can mop the floor with whatever hilarious candidate the GOP can scrape from the bottom of the barrel.

The name should have been changed when the bridge was changed, and it would have been if not for Democrat Speaker of the House Tom Murphy. Herman Talmedge was a crook and a racist, and Savannians never had a chance to vote on the bridges name.

I hope she does too Thom, and I hope you are young and get a really good job so you can pay plenty of taxes to fund my old age......ahhhhh love you liberals voting more liberals to office, it's like cutting your own throat, but you don't see it that way, and I hope you don't catch on. I just may move to Colorado and get a Dr. to declare me depressed, then I can get medicinal marijuana, and have Obamacare pay for it, of course I'll need Food Stamps for the munchies, and I'll need Section 8 housing. Yes please keep voting liberals in, sounds like a good retirement plan for me, working till I was 70 sounded like a sucker bet anyway.

I already proved it idiotic. There is no official record or report of the supposed incident. Poll judges being dismissed would be an official action, yet nothing appears anywhere. Secondly, how the alleged fraudulent voters voted cannot be ascertained at the voting place during the vote, yet the story says "dozens" of votes were recorded for Obama before it was stopped. No names of any of the alleged witnesses. In other words, a poorly thought out fraudulent story. In addition, since you posted it up as some sort of factual account, the burden is on you to prove it true.

I knew I could count on you to help a brother out. Just make sure you pay your SS tax, cause I'm also gonna ( don't tell anyone) file for disability when I get hooked on the weed, and if that don't work I'll start drinking heavier. I do hope you have kids that are gonna pay taxes, cause I'm gonna need a cell phone too. Hey Thom Terrific, tell your friends to vote all Democrat all the time, I've given up on winning the lottery for my retirement, Liberal Americans are a sure thing. Thanks a million...oops....I meant trillions.

Just mention anything against Obama and look how quickly The minister of propaganda comes forward to render support for his hero. That he actually supports this socialist, fairly elected or not, says all you need to know about the minister.

Voter fraud goes on all the time but is very difficult to prove. I saw another T.V. report about all these poor people living in poverty in a run down section of possibly Kentucky who openly admitted that they sold their votes for a nice little sum of money. I don't doubt it for a minute. Between voter fraud and so many people wanting to live in a nanny state and have all their needs, children's needs, health care etc. paid for by the average tax payer no wonder King Obama was reelected. Once people get used to sucking on the governments teat why would they want to get a job and be responsible for their own welfare.

If you watch the state of the union address tonight I understand that Obama wants to talk about "investing" in this and that. That's his new way of saying more stimulus spending. I guess he thinks it he changes the word we are too stupid to know that what he means is raising our debt even higher that 16 trillion. Why this does not alarm you is a mystery to me.

I have never given Bush or the Republican party a pass for getting us into debt but what Obama has done is take us farther in debt than all presidents combine. He is throwing our children and grandchildren under the bus because their generation will be stuck holding the bag more so then us. And he doesn't seem the least bit concerned. Do you not have a problem with that.

I've never hated Obama but I hate what he is doing to our country and what he stands for like socialism and communism. There is entirely too much government into every aspect of our lives. It's almost like we can't make any decisions about our lives because we are not capable of making decisions about how we live. This is getting quite scary.

Some of you guys read someone's post and interpret it the way YOU want to interpret it rather than read it with an open mind.

Sorry "brother", but I can't help you there. You'll have to depend on the "job creators".

Not a chance Thommy my boy, I'm jumping on the freebie express, there are no more job creators and I'm tired of fighting it, so I'm joining it. I'm ready for all that free stuff from the government (ie...you poor suckers that are working to pay for my free stuff). Don't worry though, I am 58, and if I have my dad's genes I could be gone by 78, but if I have my mom's, ya'll are in a heap of trouble. So keep on electing the Dem's so my retirement plan stays on track. Who cares if we are 16 Trillion in debt. LET'S PARTY

Let’s see what kind of voter fraud did the Grand Old Party try last election, where to begin: Destroying voter registration forms, stopping or shorting early voter days, less voter poll places in high Democratic area, put restrictions on voter registration drive and voter ID law just before election, have less days for absentee ballots and using hand bills and robocalls that give false information on how or when to vote (there are more).

Google ‘Did Karl Rove attempt to steal election’. Does anybody remember how Rove acted on FOX when they called Ohio for Obama? He couldn’t believe it. The group Anonymous claims that they foiled Rove from trying to steal the election in Florida, Virginia and Ohio by using the GOP’s ORCA system. Anonymous had warned Rove two weeks before the election, but going by his little fit on election night apparently he didn’t believe them.

Belle how did we get out of the ‘Great Depression”? By cutting government spending or spending more on our country’s infrastructure?

I am not interested into getting into a heated back and forth exchange with you. If you don't believe Obama has gotten us into massive debt then you are not not living in reality. And as I said earlier Bush started the downward spiral into debt but he had 9/11 on his watch and then he had 2 wars to to bring these evil terrorists to justice and overthrow Suddam Hussein and his evil sons. But the fact is that we are debt way over our head and it seems that there is no end in sight.

If you have never lived or spent any real time in a socialist or communist country then you have no clue what life is like for them as opposed to how we live in a free Republic. Unfortunately, we are losing our freedoms a little at a time and we are no longer too far away from a socialist society. Our founding fathers did not want the American to be afraid of our government. Our government works for us and are supposed to be afraid of us, the American people. My, how things have changed.

It is laughable to read posts from people who can not seem to remember that before Obama became president there were presidents and Congresses that almost led this country into another Depression.

The Great Depression was not recovered from by not spending by the government. It was through government spending which eased the Depression and World War II, massive government spending, that eventually got us through the Great Depression.

There are some that will blame one party or another or one person or another for the faults of others and so is the case against those who are constantly complaining about President Obama and childishly labeling him as a communist and/or socialist, neither of which he is, and that he is willfully harming this country which is nonsense.

When one speaks of scary one only needs to look no further than one's own misguided ill informed beliefs; calm down and try to understand that the only thing you probably have to fear is fear itself and the irrational thoughts that you have cluttered your head with which is probably the source of most of such fear.

debates or conversation with all you Obama lovers because no matter what anyone points out you will still fall all over yourselves defending the "sainted one". In many of your eyes and including the lame stream media believe this "great leader" can do no wrong. And there is nothing funny, childish or silly about being communist/socialist. I will say that although I believe that Obama is a socialist or possibly on his way to being communist he has never murdered anyone in cold blood which Stalin and Lenin did unless you want to count the drones he has dropped on people including Americans on foreign soil who are suspected of being terrorists.

When Obamacare kicks in fully we will see how much freedom we will lose with all the new laws and mandates and taxes.

So keep on laughing and enjoying your life in La La Land for as long as it lasts. Have a good evening.

The average price of a gallon of gas has increased 96 percent since President Barack Obama first took office in 2009, according to figures from the Energy Information Agency (EIA).

According to EIA data, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States was $1.838 on Jan. 19, 2009--the day before Obama took office. As of Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, the per-gallon price had risen to an average of $3.611--an increase of 96 percent.

...is that your arguments in support of your beliefs are woefully inept and have little or no factual basis. You are perpetually misinformed. That doesn't make you a bad person, it just makes you misled. :-)

Infrastructure spending is indeed investment Belle. Roads, bridges, mass transit projects, electric grid, community broadband projects are all investments. Yes, it has a stimulative effect on the economy because people are working on them and they in turn spend money. The multiplier effect is a big bang for the buck. Where you get the idea he is trying to "fool" anyone is beyond me.